Read Online Taming the Hunted by Larisa Anderson - Free Book Online Page A

feeling this was not the first turf war they
had seen. She was sure, however, that it was the last one she would see. She
growled at Gabriel to let him know that she was so not happy with the
situation.
    The combined stench of death and fear in the room was too
much for her. She padded toward the door, adjusting to her new form. Those who
were in the way stepped to the side; they had all morphed back to their human
forms and were in varying states of undress.
    She heard Jake whisper to Gabriel as he helped him up, that
she should be locked up until morning. At least he probably thought he was
whispering, but to her it was like he’d yelled in her ears. She growled at him
and bared her teeth, then turned and sprinted out the door before they had a
chance to stop her. She smashed through the front doors and ran out into the
night.
    She sprinted down the rough dirt path that led to the edge
of the cliff to the beach below. Turning, she padded down to the beach where Gabriel had taken her to on their second night together.
    She could hear his footfalls before he so much as left the
garden, so she wasn’t surprised when the familiar scent of his body emerged. He
moved so that she could see him. He didn’t say anything, but stood in his human
form watching her, sadness in his glowing yellow eyes. The strength seemed to
have left his body.
    She wondered if her own eyes glowed too, but the thought
left as soon as it arrived. Of course they did, she was one of them now. Still
in her wolf form, she paced, her great paws sinking into the soft sand. She was
so drained that she had no feelings left at all.
    “Marian,” he said. “Hear me out. I don’t expect you to
forgive me, but I do expect you to act like the woman that you were when I
first met you. Powerful and headstrong, but also willing to take a chance on
people. You have to calm down and change back.”
    She hated the very thought of who she was now. There was no
way she could go back to who she was, so why not stay in this form and run away
from this life and these men?
    “Marian, you have to be calm to change back. If you don’t
change before the sun rises you will be trapped like this until the next full
moon.”
    The words struck her. Stuck like this? The thought made her
anger rise, not lower. She wanted to yell at him, tell him how much he had cost
her, but she couldn’t do that in this form. Using her hunter training, she
mentally slowed her heartbeat. Her breathing became slower and more controlled.
She felt the shift as the wolf slid back inside her, its rage still fresh in
her mind, if not her body.
    She stood naked on the beach. Gabriel had watched her shift
and watched her now. Her alpha, her mate, her master. The cool night air did
not affect her as it had that first night with him. Her body heat soared to
much higher than a normal human being.
    “I have become everything I hated. And I didn’t get a say in
it,” she told him.
    Moving forward, he held out his hands in a motion for her to
hear him out. She was restless, her hands shook and her legs longed to be in
motion as the adrenalin pulsed through her body. She closed her eyes and took a
deep, calming breath.
    “Fuck,” she almost shouted.
    “It’s not that bad being a werewolf, you know.”
    “I won’t stay in this place. I’m a hunter, and I intend to
stay a hunter no matter what you did to me. I can hide it from the rest of my
kind.” Even saying the words, she knew she couldn’t hide, but she wasn’t giving
up who she was.
    “Think about what you’re saying. A hunter’s job is to kill
our kind. You are my mate in the eyes of our pack. That makes you the alpha female,
and no one can harm you unless they intend to challenge you for dominance. Do
you understand? If you kill our kind now it will be in cold blood whilst they
stand and take it.”
    His words hit her hard. She became a hunter to protect those
who could not fight for their own safety. The pack would not defend